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$1,150 found in parking lot returned to movie goer

The Force was with a Hamburg man Wednesday when he took his children to see “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at the Regal Cinema in the Quaker Crossing shopping center in Orchard Park.

Brian Bartoe, 40, had brought a large amount of cash with him to make payments on his mortgage and other expenses and didn’t realize that it fell out of his pocket.

Fortunately, the money – $1,150 in $100 and $50 bills – was found in the theater parking lot by an Orchard Park couple, Francine DeCerbo, 32, and her boyfriend, Thomas Brzywuski, 31, who called Orchard Park police at about 4:30 p.m. and turned the cash over to Lt. Jason Schiedel.

The couple also took note of the license plate number of the vehicle that was closest to the money and reported it to the officer.

After some searching, police were able to contact Bartoe by phone and tell him what happened. He told officers that, until they called, he didn’t know he had lost the money.

And his luck didn’t end there. Not only did police return the original $1,150, but Bartoe was able to find one more missing piece of cash, a $100 bill that had blown under his car.